Saturday, October 31, 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

Today I have 2 rustic but clean and simple cards to share with you. Both of these cards could be created in about 10-15 minutes each. If you were mass producing, it would probably be less. Both cards feature stamps by Hero Arts and kraft card stock. I love the look of kraft card stock. It goes with pretty much every color and it has a softer look than white and a more rustic look than cream. I use kraft card stock from Papertrey Ink. I love the weight of their card stock. I also pulled out some long neglected chalks. I have both the plain chalks and the shimmer chalks. I used the white of the plain chalks to get a good base of "snow" and then added some shimmer on top for more dimension. The shimmer is hard to see in the pictures but it pops in real life.

For this first card I cut rectangles with my Nestabilities for the owl and the scalloped mat behind the owl. I started by stamping the owl in Chocolate Chip ink and then I colored over the brown with an orange stardust pen for his feet. I used the same pen for his beak. The eyes are shiny courtesy of a clear glaze pen. The scarf is finished with a green sharpie and a red stardust pen.

The strip of holly leaves was created by making score lines 1 1/2 inches apart along the lower part of the card and then I stamped the leaves randomly between the lines. The holly berries are filled in with the red stardust pen again.

I always like to finish the inside of my cards. When possible, I repeat and element from the front of the card. For the owl card I used the holly leaves again.

My second card is finished similarly to the first card. For this card, I used a strip of patterned paper by scenic route instead of stamping my own design. When mass producing cards, this saves a lot of time. To add a little dimension, I inked the two edges of the paper. I put my stardust and glaze pens to work again on the reindeer.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

It's here, Inspire Swap Chat’s first official blog hop. Along this journey you will be introduced to some amazing Birthday Themed projects. Hopefully you just arrived here from babyjsmom! If not, I'd like to guide you back to the beginning at Inspire Swap Chat so you can hop along, and enter to win an adorable birthday themed basket filled with goodies to make scrapbook pages or cards!

Today is the last day of the blog hop. I have a short tutorial to share with you using Just Rite Stampers. I love using the Just Rite Stampers to create a personalized card. The card I'm sharing with you was created for a card order. My customer wanted something for her son's teacher. I suggested something personalized with NO APPLES. As a teacher I can tell you that we don't all LOVE apples but everyone loves something made especially for them.

I immediately pulled out my Just Rite Stamper size 2 15/16 circle, cupcake center and 25pt. Times New Roman font set. You can get all three of these in a set. The font has fewer letters than a full set would have but I can usually make it work for short sentiments like this one.

I began by lining up my letters and snapping the cupcake in the center. It does take some work to get the letters just right. I find the easiest way is to find what letter is the center letter, place it and then work out both ways. You also have to spell from right to left for the image to print correctly.

Once I have the stamper loaded, I always do a couple of test stamps. I find the stampers get the best, even impression if you use a stamp mat. When I test stamp on scrap paper I'm looking for a couple things. First I'm checking for letter placement to make certain I'm not too far one direction and it is overall pleasing to the eye. Secondly I'm checking for any areas that have ink where I don't want ink. If I find an area with ink, I dab it with a baby wipe before my final stamp. Lastly I'm checking to see if all the letters stamped correctly. Occasionally if you don't push a letter in until it snaps or if you rubbed too hard against the ink pad, you'll get uneven coverage. It's simple to fix by pushing the letter back in.

Now that you've tested your image a couple times, re-inked and cleaned up any edges with stray ink it's time to stamp. I highly recommend checking your fingers for ink (I often have fingerprint smudges from adjusting the letters) and putting your circle on a stamp pad. After stamping the image I used a couple of markers, a gelly roll stardust pen and a gelly roll black glaze pen to color my image.

Finally I adhered all my pieces together. The circle and scalloped circle were both cut with Nestabilities. I used a corner chomper to round the two opposite corners of all the layers and finished off with some sparkly twill tape knotted in the sides of the circle.

Today is the last day to leave a comment and enter for a chance to win my blog candy. I'll choose 2 random winners from the hat tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop so far. The ISC members are so creative that I know you must be. But it is not over yet--you still havefive more stops and then the final stop at Inspire Swap Chat! Next is craftygirlfrommg. Believe me you will be happy you stopped by to see what she created. Enjoy the rest of the hop and don't forget in order to be eligible for the great prize package you will need to leave a comment on all the members blogs along with a final comment on the Inspire Swap Chat blog letting us know what your favorite project was.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

It's here, Inspire Swap Chat’s first official blog hop. Along this journey you will be introduced to some amazing Birthday Themed projects. Hopefully you just arrived here frombabyjsmom! If not, I'd like to guide you back to the beginning at Inspire Swap Chat so you can hop along, and enter to win an adorable birthday themed basket filled with goodies to make scrapbook pages or cards!

For the second day of the blog hop I have a masculine card to share with you. For this card I tried out the tri shutter technique. The technique can be found here if you want to try it out yourself. I love making technique cards and cards that are interactive. I think they have a wow factor to them (especially for guys and kids) that pretty cards don't always get (unless it's a fellow crafter!) Without further ado, here is my card.

Now for a chance to win some blog candy, please leave me a comment. You can enter a comment for yesterday's post, today's post and one tomorrow. I'll choose 2 random winners out of a hat.

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop so far. The ISC members are so creative that I know you must be. But it is not over yet--you still havefive more stops and then the final stop at Inspire Swap Chat! Next is craftygirlfrommg. Believe me you will be happy you stopped by to see what she created. Enjoy the rest of the hop and don't forget in order to be eligible for the great prize package you will need to leave a comment on all the members blogs along with a final comment on the Inspire Swap Chat blog letting us know what your favorite project was.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

It's here, Inspire Swap Chat’s first official blog hop. Along this journey you will be introduced to some amazing Birthday Themed projects. Hopefully you just arrived here from babyjsmom! If not, I'd like to guide you back to the beginning at Inspire Swap Chat so you can hop along, and enter to win an adorable birthday themed basket filled with goodies to make scrapbook pages or cards!

For the first day of the ISC Blog Hop I created a birthday card for my dad's birthday on the 30th of this month. Normally I make him a Halloween birthday card but this year I wanted to utilize the birthday stamp set I got by Inkadinkado. Each stamp in the set is an image with a humorous sentiment. My dad is really a big kid at heart and he loves to get funny cards. The card I created will be especially funny to those of us who actually know his parents.

I colored my card with a combo of Sharpies and Prisma color markers. I would love to have a set of copics but my children also need a college education so I have compromised. I have a set of Sharpies that I fill out with the Prisma colors to get the shading options of having lighter markers. I finished off the glasses and boots with a black glaze pen to add a little shine.

If you would like the opportunity to win a little blog candy, please leave a comment and come back for the next 2 days to leave comments on my two new projects that will be posted. I will randomly draw 2 people out of the hat to win! Be sure to check out the rest of the blog hop.

I hope you are enjoying the blog hop so far. The ISC members are so creative that I know you must be. But it is not over yet--you still have five more stops and then the final stop at Inspire Swap Chat! Next is Craftygirlfrommg. Believe me you will be happy you stopped by to see what she created. Enjoy the rest of the hop and don't forget in order to be eligible for the great prize package you will need to leave a comment on all the members blogs along with a final comment on the Inspire Swap Chat blog letting us know what your favorite project was.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

I just finished my card for the Christmas Clean and Simple card swap on Inspire Swap Chat. I love how beautiful the clean and simple cards turn out. I think they really need a wow stamp or embellishment that pops. For my card I pulled out the Christmas stamps by Inkadinkado. All the stamps in this set are fairly large and very ornate. The reindeer is definitely my favorite of the set. I also had some pomegranate card stock that I wanted to use. I think the pomegranate is one of my favorite colors for Christmas. I rarely use the straight up red and green. I like darker and lighter shades for Christmas.

Friday, October 23, 2009

I would not call myself an artist and there are far more talented people out there than myself; however I do enjoy expressing myself creatively. The first time I can remember someone remarking that I was creative (my mom has assured me that my creativity was very apparent long before this as I always had creative ways of doing everything) was when I was in the third grade and I started writing short stories and poems. They were silly and very childish but I had a way of describing things that was quite creative. As the years went on I started adding other mediums and outlets to my creativity like sewing, needlepoint (never could follow the lines!) and photography before settling into the paper crafting world.

I see a lot of that same creativity in my daughter. I am determined to nurture it rather than curb it. Her current obsession is photography. Thankfully we are in a digital age and it's ok when she takes 100 pictures of her feet (see example 2 below) or fifty pictures of the ceiling. Some of her photos are quite put together. A lot of her pictures are My space worthy (see example 1 below)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Edit to add: Sorry about the background noise. I had the speakers off and didn't realize the kids were so vocal while I filmed. I also changed the video format as it was working on Firefox (what I use) but not Internet Explorer.

Last year I really wanted to make an album I could put lots of Christmas pictures in, but my dad fell ill and I just couldn't bring myself to put the hospital pictures in an album.

I decided to get a head start this year. I wanted something different, something the kids and I both would like. I ended up with a flip book/waterfall album of sorts. I used papers from an 8x8 pad of Making Memories Fa la la la paper that I found at Tuesday Morning for the bargain price of 2.99 and a little Bazzil card stock that matched. I altered the waterfall technique to fit the needs of my book and ended up with lots of slots for cards.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I'm not a fan of digital scrapbooks....at least not for my own personal scrapbooks. I think they are great for mass production, gifts and for little things to send out like this digital layout I made to mail to family members. Most of my family is still not connected to the Internet so emailing pictures doesn't work. I always have several shots I'd like to share but I don't want to send 10+ copies of each picture. I started making these little "layouts" or photo cards last year. I have seen them displayed on the refrigerators of the recipients. The elements were a freebie found here on Stamping and Stuff blog. She has a lot of great freebies. That is the other benefit to digital stuff....there are so many freebies to use out there.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Yesterday was Simon's 7th birthday. I really can't believe he is already 7 since it seems like yesterday he was the baby boy scooting along the living room floor. This year Simon requested pumpkin pie instead of cake. For birthday dinner he wanted chicken fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I was shocked since I expected a pizza or taco request and chocolate cake with icecream. This is also the first year he received any amount of cash. He is very busy planning what he's spending his $115 on.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

2 Sketches For U has a blog hop today and a special sketch. I tried out the sketch for World Card Making Day. I took the opportunity to utilize some scraps. I am horrible about using a little bit of a piece of paper and then storing it for "later" only later never comes. Everything on this card is from scraps so I don't really know who all the papers are by other than the card stock is Bazzil. I used a corner adorner with the paper guard off to make the medallion and the circles and leaf were cut with Spellbinders.

Today is World Card Making Day. If you haven't done so, you should check out Moxie Fab World for some awesome chances to win prizes and Paper Craft Connections for some more chances. Inspire Swap Chat has the first year birthday celebration going on. Splitcoaststampers has challenges and prizes all day long. Finally if you can't find something fun to do online, check out your local scrapbook store.

I have already made 2 cards for World Card Making Day. They are both Christmas cards and (gasp!) Texas themed. I know, I know there really is something wrong with Texans (I still don't consider myself to be one) and their obsession with all things Texan. I created these cards with some certain family members in mind. They will not be going to my friends and family in other states.

About Me

I'm a mother of 2 (Simon--14 and Lizzy 11). I teach first grade. Between my kids at home and my kids at school, I stay busy but never too busy to hit the craft room on occasion.
I love all types of paper crafts. I started with scrapbooking, but spend most of my crafting time stamping, making cards and altered items.